TEACHERS'  HANDBOOKS 


UC-NRLF 


$B    E1D    701 


LATIN  PRONUNCIATION 


H.  T.  PECK 


TEACHERS'   HANDBOOKS 


LATIN   PRONUNCIATION 


A    SHORT  EXPOSITION  OF  THE 
ROMAN  METHOD 


HARRY  THURSTON  PECK,  M.A.,   Ph.D. 

Professor,  in  Columbia  College 


NEW  YORK 
HENRY   HOLT   AND   COMPANY 

1890 


Copyright,  1890, 

BY 

HENRY  HOLT  &  CO. 


Robert  Drummond, 

Printer, 

New  York. 


CONTENTS. 


I.  Introductory,  .... 
II.  Soukces  of  Our  Information, 

III.  The  Latin  Alphabet,     ... 

IV.  Sounds  of  the  Letters, 
V.  Sounds  of  the  Diphthongs,  . 

VI.  A  Short  Bibliography  of  the  Subject, 


PAGE 

5 

7 
12 
15 
31 
37 


LATIN  PRONUNCIATION. 


INTRODUCTORY. 


This  short  manual  is  primarily  intended  for  those 
who,  being  interested  in  the  study  of  Latin,  have  ac- 
cepted the  Roman  method  of  pronunciation  upon 
the  authority  of  the  Grammars,  but  have  either  not 
been  able  to  command  the  time  to  make  themselves 
familiar  with  the  arguments  upon  which  this  system 
is  based,  or  have  been  repelled  by  the  technicalities 
employed  in  treating  the  question  from  the  standpoint 
of  the  specialist.  It  is  believed  that  the  following 
pages  will  be  found  to  give  in  simple  form  the  main 
facts  bearing  upon  this  interesting  question ;  and  that 
nothing  has  been  introduced  that  is  either  unnecessary 
or  obscure.  For  those  who  may  wish  to  pursue  their 
investigations  farther  after  mastering  these  facts,  a 
bibliography  of  the  subject  is  given  at  the  end. 

The  Roman  method  of  pronouncing  Latin  has  now 
received  the  approval  of  all  Latinists  of  authority 
in  Europe  and  America,  as  giving  substantially  the 
pronunciation  employed  by  educated  Romans  of  the 

5 


6  LATIN  PRONUNCIATION. 

Augustan  Age.  It  has  been  formally  adopted  at  our 
leading  Universities.  The  most  recent  Grammars  of 
the  language  recognize  no  other  method.  Thus,  one 
great  reproach  to  classical  scholarship  seems  likely  to 
be  soon  removed,  and  one  universal  pronunciation  of 
the  noblest  of  the  ancient  languages  to  receive  general 
acceptation.  This  little  book  will  more  than  accom- 
plish its  object  if  it  shall  have  aided  ever  so  slightly 
in  discrediting  the  barbarisms  of  a  method  which,  to 
use  the  expression  of  a  distinguished  scholar,  "  ought 
long  since  to  have  followed  the  Ptolemaic  system  of 
astronomy  into  the  limbo  of  unscientific  curiosities/1 


II. 

SOURCES  OF  OUR  INFORMATION. 

A  question  of  much  interest  to  the  student  of  Latin, 
and  one  that  does  not  always  receive  a  satisfactory 
answer,  relates  to  the  sources  of  our  information. 

What  knowledge  have  we  of  how  the  Romans  pro- 
nounced their  own  language  nineteen  hundred  years 
ago  ?  How  is  it  possible  after  so  long  an  interval  to 
reconstruct  the  laws  of  a  pronunciation  which  prevailed 
at  a  given  period  of  the  remote  past  ? 

Briefly  summarized,  the  sources  of  our  information 
are  six  in  number. 

(1)  Statements  of  the  Roman  writers  themselves, 
which  modern  scholarship  has  laboriously  collected. 
These  are  of  different  degrees  of  explicitness,  and  of 
different  degrees  of  value.  It  is  evident  that  a  state- 
ment of  Cicero,  however  brief,  is  more  trustworthy  and 
more  convincing,  with  regard  to  the  usage  of  his  own 
time,  than  whole  pages  of  testimony  in  a  writer  like 
Priscian  who  wrote  in  the  sixth  century,  by  which 
period  the  language  had  become  corrupt. 

We  may,  then,  broadly  divide  the  ancient  authori- 
ties on  this  subject  into  two  groups, — the  first  consist- 
ing of  those  writers  who  themselves  belonged  to  the 
classical  age;  the  second,  of  those  grammarians  and 
commentators  who  have  left  us  very  full  statements, 

7 


8  LATIN  PRONUNCIATION. 

though  the  date  at  which  they  wrote  somewhat  impairs 
the  value  of  their  testimony. 

The  chief  classical  authorities  to  whom  appeal  can 
be  made  are  M.  Terentius  Varro,  a  contemporary  of 
Cicero,  whose  treatise  on  the  Latin  language  has  in 
part  come  down  to  us;  Cicero  himself,  from  whose 
rhetorical  works  one  can  gather  many  valuable  facts; 
and  M.  Fabius  Quintilianus,  the  author  of  the  treatise 
Institutio  Oratoria  in  twelve  books.  It  is  not 
merely  when  these  authors  speak  of  definite  points  of 
language  and  pronunciation  that  th^y  are  valuable; 
sometimes  a  casual  remark,  an  anecdote,  or  a  puu, 
may  be  of  very  great  importance,  as  will  be  seen  from 
time  to  time  in  the  following  pages. 

Of  the  later  writers  on  language  who  treat  the  subject 
very  minutely,  a  great  number  might  be  cited.*  The 
most  important  are  Terentianus  Maurus,  who  wrote, 
perhaps  about  the  third  century,  a  poem  on  letters, 
syllables,  feet,  and  metres,  which  is  twice  quoted  by 
St.  Augustine;  Verrius  Flaccus,  the  tutor  to  the  grand- 
children of  the  Emperor  Augustus  and  author  of  a 
work  on  the  meaning  of  words  which  has  come  down  to 
us  in  a  later  abridgment;  Aulus  Gellius,  who,  toward 
the  end  of  the  second  century,  compiled  a  huge  scrap- 
book  on  a  variety  of  subjects,  many  of  them  of  great 
linguistic  interest,  and,  with  the  exception  of  a  few 
chapters,  still   extant;    Priscianus   Caesariensis,  who 

*  Schneider  in  his  ElementarleJire  der  Lateinischen  Sprache 
cites  more  than  fifty  ancient  authors.  Besides  those  men- 
tioned above,  reference  is  often  made  to  Velius  Longns,  Ser- 
vius,  Marius  Victorinus,  Macrobius,  and  Martian  us  Capella. 


SOURCES  OF  OUR  INFORMATION,  9 

wrote  under  Justinian  at  Constantinople  eighteen 
books  of  grammatical  commentaries  which  form  the 
most  complete  grammar  of  antiquity;  and  Aelius 
Donatus  (a.d.  333),  whose  elementary  treatise  was  so 
highly  thought  of  in  the  Middle  Ages  that  the  name 
"  donat "  (Chaucer)  was  used  as  a  generic  term  for  a 
grammar. 

From  these  and  many  other  writers  one  gathers  a 
great  mass  of  instructive  facts;  and  their  very  silence 
is  sometimes  as  significant  as  what  they  say. 

(2)  The  orthography  of  the  language  itself  as  seen 
in  the  inscriptions.  Latin  orthography  was  in  the 
main  phonetic  (Quintilian,  I.  7.  11).  The  language 
was  pronounced  as  it  was  spelled.  But  as  is  always 
the  case,  changes  in  orthography  lagged  a  little  behind 
changes  in  the  pronunciation.  Hence  even  the  blun- 
ders made  by  an  ignorant  lapidary  in  cutting  an  in- 
scription are  often  a  source  of  information  to  us. 

(3)  The  representation  in  Greek  letters  of  Roman 
sounds.  A  number  of  Greek  writers  treated  of  Roman 
history,  Eoman  biography,  and  Eoman  geography. 
In  so  doing  they  were  obliged  to  represent  many  Latin 
names  and  words  in  Greek  characters.  But  many  of 
these  writers  had  no  particular  knowledge  of  the  Latin 
language,  and  hence  spelled  these  Latin  names  and 
words  phonetically.  Their  method  of  doing  this  is 
both  interesting  and  instructive.  The  writers  of  this 
sort  who  are  oftenest  cited  are  Polybius  (b.c.  175),  the 
friend  of  the  younger  Scipio  and  the  author  of  a  Gen- 
eral History  of  Rome  from  the  Second  Punic  War 
down  to  the  conquest  of  Macedonia ;  Strabo  the  geog- 


10  LATIN  PRONUNCIATION. 

rapher  (24  B.C.) ;  Diodorus  Siculus,  the  contemporary 
of  Julius  Caesar  and  author  of  an  Historical  Library 
in  forty  books;  and  Plutarch  (a.d.  80),  the  best 
known  of  the  Greek  writers  on  Koman  subjects.* 

(4)  A  critical  comparison  of  all  the  modern  lan- 
guages of  Europe  that  are  derived  from  the  Latin 
(Italian,  French,  Spanish,  Portuguese)  with  reference 
to  those  points  wherein  they  all  agree.  This  source 
of  information  is  of  less  importance  than  one  would 
think,  because  these  languages  are  not  derived  directly 
from  the  classical  Latin,  but  from  Latin  that  was 
either  provincial  or  modified  by  foreign  influences. 
Still,,  this  comparison  is  useful  in  corroborating  facts 
that  are  elsewhere  learned,  and  is  of  positive  value 
when  not  contradicted  by  other  evidence. 

(5)  The  traditions  of  scholars,  and  especially  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church,  which  in  its  rites  has  em- 
ployed Latin  continuously  from  the  first  century  down 
to  the  present  time.  The  rhymes  of  the  early  Chris- 
tian hymns  also  have  a  bearing  on  this  subject. 

(6)  The  general  principles  of  the  science  of  pho- 
nology, which  are  now  well  established  and  understood, 
and  are  of  great  value  in  detecting  erroneous  assump- 
tions which  would  otherwise  pass  unchallenged. 

From  these  six  sources  can  be  gained  a  very  accurate 
understanding  of  how  Latin  was  pronounced  in  the 
clays  of  Cicero  and  Caesar.    It  is  not  too  much  to  claim 

*  Others  are  Josephus,  the  Jewish  historian  ;  Dionysius  of 
Halicarnassus  ;  Appian  ;  and  Dio  Cassius, — the  last  a  Roman 
who  wrote  in  Greek. 


SOURCES  OF  OUR  INFORMATION.  11 

that  the  system  of  pronunciation  upon  which  scholars 
are  now  agreed,  differs  less  from  that  of  the  Romans 
of  the  Augustan  Age  than  does  our  modern  pronun- 
ciation of  English  differ  from  that  of  Shakespeare 
and  his  contemporaries. 


III. 

THE  LATIN   ALPHABET. 

In  its  earliest  form,  the  Latin  alphabet  consisted  of 
21  characters,— A,  B,  C,  D,  E,  F,  Z,  H,  I,  K,  L,  M,  N, 
0,  P,  Q,  E,  S,  T,  V,  X.  These  letters  were  derived 
from  the  alphabet  used  by  the  Dorian  Greeks  of 
Campania.  At  a  very  early  period  the  letters  K  and  Z 
fell  into  disuse,  although  K  continued  to  occur  in  a 
few  ancient  abbreviations,  such  as  Kal.  for  Kalendae, 
K.  S.  for  carus  suis,  K.  K.  for  cdlumniae  causa  (a 
legal  phrase),  KK.  for  castrorum,  KA.  for  capitalist 
and  the  use  of  Z  was  subsequently  revived  in  translit- 
erating Greek  words.  Originally,  the  character  C  had 
the  sound  which  was  afterwards  given  to  G ;  but  when 
K  was  abandoned,  0  took  its  place  and  its  sound ;  while 
a  new  letter,  G,  was  formed  by  slightly  changing  the 
original  C.  Plutarch  says  that  the  character  G  was 
first  employed  by  Spurius  Carvilius  about  the  year 
230  B.C.  In  Cicero's  time  the  letter  Y  was  introduced 
to  represent  the  sound  of  the  Greek  T;  but  its  presence 
in  a  word  always  marks  a  foreign  origin,  so  that  the 
character  can  scarcely  be  regarded  as  an  essential  part 
of  the  Eoman  alphabet.  About  the  year  a.d.  44,  the 
Emperor  Claudius  tried  to  introduce  three  new  sym- 
bols into  the  alphabet :  (1)  the  inverted  diagamma  J 
to  mark  the  consonantal  sound  of  V;  (2)  the  charac- 
ter known  as  "anti-sigma"  O   to  express  the  sound 

12 


THE  LATIN  ALPHABET.  13 

denoted  by  the  Greek  tp  (ps  or  bs) ;  and  (3)  the  sign 
H,  which  was  to  have  the  sound  of  the  Greek  v,  i.e. 
of  modern  French  u  or  German  ii.  It  may  be  men- 
tioned also,  that  consonants  were  not  doubled  in 
writing  Latin  until  the  practice  was  adopted  from  the 
Greek  by  Ennius  (b.c.  239-169),  who  in  various  ways 
conformed  Eoman  usages  to  those  of  the  Greeks. 

The  Eoman  alphabet,  like  the  early  alphabet  of  the 
Greeks,  lacked  distinctive  characters  for  the  long  and 
short  vowels.  This  defect,  which  was  partly  corrected 
in  Greek  by  the  invention  of  the  letters  rj  and  go  (tra- 
ditionally ascribed  to  Epicharmus  of  Syracuse,  B.C. 
500),  was  never  fully  remedied  in  Latin,  though  at 
different  times  various  devices  were  employed  to  dis- 
tinguish between  a  and  a,  e  and  e,  u  and  u,  o  and  o. 
These  were : 

(1)  The  doubling  oj:  the  vowel  when  long,  as  in 
modern  Dutch;  thus,  oorator  =  orator;  aara  = 
ara.  This  method  was  persistently  used  by  the  poet 
Attius.* 

(2)  By  the  use  of  a  species  of  accent  (apex)  over 
the  long  vowel.  This  became  quite  general  in  the 
Augustan  Age. 

(3)  The  length  of  the  vowel  I  was  denoted  some- 
times by  making  it  longer  than  the  other  letters  and 
sometimes  by  writing  it  ei;  thus,  dIco,  deico. 

The  Roman  numerals  V,  X,  L,  C,  D,  M  originated 
in  various  ways.f 

*  Velius  Longus,  p.  2220  P.     When  i  is  doubled  it  usually 
denotes  the  consonantal  »(j);  e.g.  maiior. 
t  Cf.  Ball's  History  of  Mathematics,  pp.  119,  120, 


14  LATIN  PRONUNCIATION. 

V  represented  originally  the  open  palm  with  the 
thumb  extended,  just  as  our  0  (zero)  is  thought  to 
represent  a  closed  hand. 

X  perhaps  =  ®?  an  old  form  of  0;  according  to 
others,  it  is  merely  two  V's  placed  together. 

L  =  ±  =  c!>  or  x>  a  Greek  letter  which  the  Eomans 
did  not  need  in  their  alphabet  and  hence  used  only  as 
a  numeral. 

C  =  O,  another  form  of  0,  and  confounded  with 
C  as  though  standing  for  centum. 

M  =  0,  becoming  first  cio  and  then  M,  as  though 
standing  for  mille.    D  is  one  half  of  this  figure,  or  io. 


IV. 
SOUNDS   OF   THE    LETTERS. 

1.  A:    a  had  the   sound  of  a  in  English  "far";  a 

had  the  sound  of  a  in  English  "  pastime". 

There  is  no  disagreement  of  opinion  regarding  the 
proper  pronunciation  of  Latin  a.  All  the  modern 
languages  derived  from  the  Latin  practically  agree  in 
the  sounds  which  they  give  to  this  character.  Further- 
more, its  pronunciation  is  described  for  us  by  Teren- 
tianus  Maurus  (p.  328  in  the  edition  by  Keil) ;  by 
Marius  Victorinus  (p.  32  in  the  edition  of  the  same 
editor) ;  and  also  by  Martianus  Capella  (in.  261). 

[Note. — It  must  be  remembered  in  the  pronunciation  of 
the  Latin  vowels  that  the  short  vowel  does  not  differ  in  qual- 
ity from  the  corresponding  long  one,  but  only  in  quantity,  i.e. 
it  occupied  less  time  in  pronouncing.  This  is  an  important 
distinction  between  Latin  and  English.] 

2.  B:  had  in  general  the  sound  of  English  b;  but 

before  s  or  t,  the  sound  of  p. 

(a)  The  ordinary  sound  of  Latin  b  is  described  for 
us  by  Martianus  Capella  (in.  261) ;  and  by  Marius 
Victorinus  (p.  32  Keil). 

(b)  That  it  was  sounded  like  p  when  it  stood  before 
s  we  know  because  occasionally  in  inscriptions  it  is  so 
written,  e.g.  pleps  for  plebs;  Araps  for  Arabs]  urps 

15 


16  LATIN  PRONUNCIATION. 

for  urbs.  In  certain  verbs  this  usage  has  modified  the 
regular  orthography,  e.g.  scripsi  for  scribsi  from 
scribe,  and  opsequor  for  obsequor.  And  so  before  t, 
as  we  learn  both  by  the  spelling  of  certain  words  (op- 
tineo,  script  urn)',  and  from  the  statement  of  Quin- 
tilian  (i.  7.  7) :  "  When  I  pronounce  the  word  obtinuit, 
our  rule  of  writing  requires  that  the  second  letter 
should  be  b :  but  the  ear  catches  the  sound  of  p." 

3.  C :  always  had  the  sound  of  English  7c. 

The  facts  upon  which  this  statement  is  founded  are 
as  follows : 

(a)  The  pronunciation  of  this  letter  is  so  described 
for  us  by  Martianus  Oapella  (in.  261)  as  to  prove  it 
a  hard  palatal. 

(b)  G  took  the  place  of  an  original  h  in  the  early 
alphabet  as  previously  stated;  and  in  succeeding  ages 
at  times  c  reappears  in  inscriptions  indifferently  be- 
fore the  various  vowels.  Thus  we  have  the  form 
Gaelius  alternating  with  Kaelius,  Cerus  with  Kerus, 
and  decembres  with  dehembres, — showing  that  c  and 
h  were  identical  in  sound.  Quintilian  (i.  7.  10)  says : 
"  As  regards  h,  I  think  it  should  not  be  used  in  any 
words.  .  .  .  This  remark  I  have  not  failed  to  make, 
for  the  reason  that  there  are  some  who  think  k  neces- 
sary when  a  follows;  though  there  is  the  letter  G, 
which  has  the  same  power  before  all  vowels." 

(c)  In  the  Greek  transliteration  of  Latin  names, 
Latin  c  is  always  represented  by  k;  and  in  Latin 
transliteration  of  Greek  names,  k  is  always  represented 
by  Latin  c.     And  we  know  that  Greek  h  was  never 


SOUNDS  OF  THE  LETTERS.  17 

assibilated  before  any  vowel.     Suidas  calls  the  0  on 
the  Eoman  senators'  shoes,  u  the  Koman  kappa." 

(d)  Words  taken  into  Gothic  and  Old  High  German 
from  the  Latin  at  an  early  period  invariably  represent 
Latin  c  by  Jc;  thus,  Latin  career  gives  the  Gothic 
karJcara  and  the  German  Kerker ;  Latin  Caesar  gives 
the  German  Kaiser]  Latin  lucerna  gives  the  Gothic 
liikarn;  the  Latin  cellarium  gives  the  German  Kel- 
ler; the  Latin  cerastes  gives  the  German  Kirsche. 
Also  in  late  Hebrew,  Latin  c  is  regularly  represented 
in  transliteration  by  the  hard  consonant  kopli. 

[Advocates  of  the  English  system  claim  that  Latin  c  had  the 
sound  of  s  before  e  or  i  because  every  modern  language  de- 
rived from  the  Latin  has  in  some  way  modified  c  when  thus 
used.  It  is  true  that  modern  languages  have  so  modified  it;  but, 
as  already  noted,  the  modern  languages  are  the  children  not 
of  the  classical  Latin  spoken  in  the  days  of  Cicero,  but  of  the 
provincial  Latin  spoken  five  or  six  centuries  later.  There  is 
no  doubt  that  at  this  late  period,  Latin  c  had  become  modified 
before  e  or  i  so  as  to  be  equivalent  to  s  or  z.  Latin  words 
received  into  German  at  this  time  represent  c  before  e  or 
i  by  2.  But  had  this  modification  been  a  part  of  the  usage 
of  the  classical  language,  it  would  have  been  noticed  by  the 
grammarians,  who  discuss  each  letter  with  great  minuteness. 
Now  no  grammarian  ever  mentions  more  than  one  sound  for 
Latin  c.  Again,  if  Latin  c  had  ever  had  the  sound  of  s,  surely 
some  of  the  Greeks,  ignorant  of  Latin  and  spelling  by  ear, 
would  at  least  occasionally  have  represented  Latin  c  by  cr, — 
a  thing  which  none  of  them  has  ever  done.  It  is  probable 
that  the  modification  of  c  which  is  noticed  in  the  modern  lan- 
guages was  a  characteristic  of  the  Umbrian  and  Oscan  dialects 
and  so  prevailed  to  some  extent  in  the  provinces,  but  there  is 
absolutely  not  the  slightest  evidence  to  show  that  it  formed  a 
part  of  the  pronunciation  of  cultivated  men  at  Rome.] 


18  LATIN  PRONUNCIATION. 

4.  D :  had  regularly  the  sound  of  English  d ;  but  at 

the  end  of  words  nearly  that  of  t, 

(a)  The  position  of  the  vocal  organs  in  uttering 
this  letter  is  described  by  Terentianus  Maurus  (p.  331 
Keil);  Marius  Victorinus  (p.  33);  and  Martianus 
Capella  (m.  261). 

(b)  That  final  d  was  sounded  like  t  is  clear  from 
the  positive  statements  of  Quintilian  and  from  the 
fact  that  in  inscriptions,  as  well  as  in  the  best  manu- 
scripts of  Plautus  and  Vergil,  we  find  almost  indiffer- 
ently ad  and  at,  apud  and  aput,  haud  and  limit,  quid 
and  quit,  as  well  as  adque  and  atque  and  many  others. 

[At  about  the  fourth  century  a.d.,  di  before  a  vowel  began 
to  be  pronounced  somewhat  like  the  French  j,  just  as  in  Aeolic 
Greek  we  find  £d  for  Sid.  Hence  in  the  modern  languages  g 
and,;  arise  out  of  Latin  di.  Compare  Latin  diurnus  with  the 
Italian  glorno  and  the  French  jour.] 

5.  E :  e  had  the  sound  of  English  a  in  "  fate"  or  of  the 

French  e ;  £  had  the  sound  of  English  e  in  "  net". 

(a)  The  position  of  the  vocal  organs  in  pronouncing 
e  is  described  by  Terentianus  Maurus  (p.  329  Keil) ; 
Marius  Victorinus  (p.  32);  and  Martianus  Capella 
(in.  261).  It  is  regularly  represented  in  Greek  trans- 
literations by  e  when  short,  and  by  rj  when  long. 

(b)  The  sound  of  the  letter  e  seems  to  have  varied 
more  than  was  the  case  with  other  vowels.  The  later 
grammarians  give  to  e  a  sound  approximating  to  the 
sound  of  i.  (Cf.  Donatus  in  Servius  p.  421,  Keil  *). 
And  confusion  of  e  and  %  in  words  like  timidus,  navi- 

*  Seelmann,  Die  Ausspraclie  des  Latein,  p.  175  sqq. 


SOUNDS  OF  THE  LETTERS.  19 

bos  (written  timedus,  navelos)  is  to  be  seen  in  early 
Latin.  But  too  much  importance  has  been  given  to 
this.  The  fact  is  that  one  short  unaccented  vowel  is 
very  likely  to  be  mistaken  for  another,  especially  by 
the  uneducated  and  by  careless  speakers.  The  hearer 
cannot  detect  the  difference,  and  in  fact  there  is  none, 
practically.  The  extremely  accurate  and  discriminat- 
ing elocution  of  which  we  hear  was  in  all  probability 
confined  to  the  highly  cultivated  classes. 

6.  F :  had  practically  the  sound  of  English  /. 

Latin  /  is  not  like  the  Greek  0,  which  was  a  double 
sound  rather  than  a  single  one,  i.e.  it  was  p  +  h  with 
each  element  distinctly  audible,  as  in  English  top- 
heavy,  uphill.  Quintilian  says :  "  The  Greeks  are 
accustomed  to  aspirate;  whence  Cicero  in  his  oration 
for  Fundanius  ridicules  a  witness  who  could  not  sound 
the  first  letter  of  that  name."*  The  descriptions 
given  by  Priscian  and  Terentianus  Maurus  of  the 
position  of  the  lips  and  teeth  in  pronouncing/ show 
that  it  was  formed  precisely  as  our  /,  i.e.  with  the 
lower  lips  against  the  upper  teeth. 

7.  Gr :  g  always  had  the  hard  sound  of  English  g  in 

"get". 

(a)  When  g  comes  before  an  5  it  produces  x,  thus 
showing  that  it  is  a  guttural :  e.g.  lex  —  leg  +  s;  and 
rex  =  reg  +  s. 

(b)  No  Eoman  grammarian  mentions  more  than 
one  sound  as  belonging  to  g,  although  they  treat  of 
the  letters  minutely. 

*  Quint,  i.  4,  14. 


20  LATIN  PRONUNCIATION. 

(c)  All  the  vowels  readily  interchange  after  g  in 
the  same  root,  which  would  hardly  be  the  case  if  g 
had  had  more  than  one  sound.  Thus  we  have  malt- 
genus  and  malignus;  lego,  legis,  legit;  gigeno  and 
gigno]  tegimen  and  tegmen. 

(d)  Latin  g  is  invariably  represented  by  Greek  y, 
and  the  Greek  y  is  invariably  represented  by  Latin  g. 
St.  Augustine  remarks :  "  When  I  say  lege,  a  Greek 
understands  one  thing  and  a  Roman  another  in  these 
two  syllables."  This  shows  that  Latin  lege  and  Greek 
Xeye  had  precisely  the  same  sound. 

(e)  It  was  not  before  the  fourth  or  fifth  century 
a.d.,  that  g  began  to  have  the  soft  sound  before  e  and 
i  which  is  found  in  Italian,  French,  and  Portuguese. 
The  first  change  from  the  regular  g  sound  was  to  a 
y  sound,  for  we  find  such  variations  as  mag  est  as  for 
maiestas,  and  in  Greek  fieievn  for  viginti. 

8.  H :  had  the  sound  of  English  h. 

(a)  H  is  described  as  a  simple  breathing  by  Marius 
Victorinus,  p.  34  (Keil);  Terentianus  Maurus,  p.  331; 
and  Martianus  Capella,  in.  261.  It  is  represented  in 
Greek  by  the  rough  breathing,  and  in  turn  it  repre- 
sents that  breathing. 

(b)  There  seems  to  have  existed  among  the  unedu- 
cated Romans  that  irregularity  in  the  use  of  li  which 
marks  the  language  of  the  English  cockney  to-day. 
Nigidius  Figulus,  the  grammarian,  said :  "  Your  speech 
becomes  boorish  if  you  aspirate  wrongly."  Catullus 
in  one  of  his  epigrams  ridicules  the  cockneyism  of  a 
person  who  said  chommoda  for  commoda,  and  hinsidiae 


SOUNDS  OF  THE  LETTEBS.  21 

for  insidiae*  In  later  Latin,  the  varying  spelling 
shows  the  growing  irregularity  of  usage.  H  seems  to 
have  been  omitted  or  inserted  almost  at  pleasure ;  thus 
hauctoritas,  Mi,  and  Mnventio,  stand  beside  inospita, 
omini  (homini),  and  dbitat  (habitat).  The  reason  for 
this  irregularity  seems  to  have  been  the  gradual  weak- 

*  Carm.  lxxxiv. 

'  Chommoda '  dicebat,  si  quando  •  commoda '  vellet 

Dicere  et  ■  insidias  '  Arrius  '  hinsidias '. 
Et  turn  rnirifice  sperabat  se  esse  locutum, 

Cum,  quantum  poterat,  dixerat  '  hinsidias  \ 

*  *  *  #•  *  * 

Hoc  misso  in  Syriam,  requierant  omnibus  aures, 

Audibant  eadam  haec  leniter  et  leviter. 
Nee  sibi  postilla  metuebant  talia  verba  ; 

Cum  subita  adfertur  nuntius  horribilis  : 
Ionios  fluctus,  postquam  illuc  Arrius  isset, 

lam  non  ■  Ionios  '  esse  sed  ■ Hionios  '  ! 

Which  Martin  has  very  cleverly  translated  : 

"  Whenever  Arrius  wished  to  name 
1  Commodious,'  out  '  chommodious '  came: 
And  when  of  his  intrigues  he  blabbed, 
With  his  '  hintrigues '  our  ears  he  stabbedj 
And  thought  moreover,  he  display ed^$^£lJBRjjS^ 
A  rare  refinement  when  he  made    ff^&      0r  rue 
His  h's  thus  at  random  fall  ((  XJNI VERSIT1 

With  emphasis  most  guttural.         ^^  Qa»  IFORt^- 
When  suddenly  came  news  one  day 
Which  smote  the  city  with  dismay, 
That  the  Ionian  seas  a  change 
Had  undergone,  most  sad  and  strange  ; 
For  since  by  Arrius  crossed,  the  wild 
•  Hionian  Hocean '  they  were  styled  1" 


22  LATIN  PRONUNCIATION. 

erring  of  the  sound  until  h  became  a  silent  letter,  as  it 
is  in  modern  Spanish  and  Italian.* 

9.  I  consonant  (J) :  had  the  sound  of  English  y. 

(a)  That  i  had  a  consonant  sound  as  distinct  from 
its  vowel  sound  is  clear  from  the  statement  of  Priscian 
(i.  p.  13,  Keil).  Before  a  vowel  and  not  preceded  by 
an  accented  syllable  with  final  consonant,  he  says  that 
i  "  passes  over  to  the  force  of  a  consonant."  That  it 
differs  from  i  the  vowel,  is  also  clear  from  the  fact 
that  in  prosody  it  lengthens  the  preceding  vowel. 

(b)  That  it  was  not  like  English  j  is  clear  from  the 
fact  that  it  readily  passes  into  i,  which  proves  the  two 
sounds  to  have  been  closely  akin ;  and  in  Greek  trans- 
literations it  is  always  represented  by  z.  Thus  Julius 
=  lovXwSy   Gajus  =  FaoiS. 

(c)  Nigidius  Figulus  cautioned  his  readers  that  the 
i  (j)  in  such  words  as  iam,  iecur,  iocus  is  not  a  vowel, — 
a  caution  that  would  have  been  absurdly  unnecessary 
if  i  had  had  any  such  sound  as  that  of  English  j. 

(d)  A  sound  somewhat  like  English/  or  z  was,  how- 
ever, given  to  this  letter  after  the  third  or  fourth 
century  a.d.  ;  for  in  inscriptions  we  find  either  z  or  gi 
written  for  it,  as  Zanuarius  for  Januarius,  and  Glove 
for  Jove. 

10.  I  (vowel) :  1  as  in  English   "  machine";  %  as  in 
English  "  din". 

(a)  Martianus  Oapella  says :  "  I  is  a  breathing  with 
the  teeth  nearly  closed." 

*  Gellius  (n.  3)  gives  a  number  of  words  formerly  written 
with  h  but  in  his  time  no  longer  aspirated.  Between  two 
vowels,  h  was  silent.     Hence  nil  for  nihil,  etc. 


SOUNDS  OF  THE  LETTERS.  23 

(b)  It  is  represented  in  Greek  by  z. 
(6*)  All  the  derived  modern  languages  give  i  this 
sound. 

[In  the  vulgar  language  and  the  sermo  rusticus,  I  seems  to 
have  varied  with  e  and  to  have  been  confused  with  it.  So 
Augustus  Caesar  said  here  for  heri ;  and  we  find  sibe  for  sibi. 
Cf.  Cic.  de  Orat.  in.  12.  46.;  Quint,  i.  6.;  Aulus  Gellius,  x. 
24.  Also  a  confusion  appears  between  i  and  ut  as  in  the  forms 
optumus  and  optimus  ;  lubet  and  libet.  But  we  are  only  con- 
cerned with  the  normal  sound  of  the  letter,  which  is  that 
given  above.] 

11.  L :  had  the  sound  of  English  /. 

It  is  always  represented  in  Greek  by  A.  The  posi- 
tion of  the  vocal  organs  in  uttering  it  is  described  by 
Marius  Victorinus,  p.  34.  Martianus  Capella  (in.  261) 
says :  "  L  grows  soft  upon  the  tongue  and  palate." 

[For  I  as  a  corruption  of  r,  see  17.  b.] 

12.  M:  had  the  sound  of  English  m,  but  was  much 
weakened  at  the  end  of  words. 

The  fact  that  m  was  weakly  sounded  at  the  end  of 
words  is  shown  by  the  elision  of  a  final  m  before  an 
initial  vowel  in  poetry  (synaloepha) ;  by  the  fact  that 
in  the  early  inscriptions  it  is  often  omitted  in  writing ; 
and  by  the  positive  statements  of  the  Eoman  writers 
themselves.*  Because  at  the  end  of  a  word  before  a 
following  vowel  it  was  practically  a  silent  letter, 
Verrius  Flaccus  wished  to  represent  it  in  that  position 
by  a  different  character,  IV .  f 

Quintilian  (xn.  10,  31)  says :  "  We  close  many  of 

*  Quint,  ix.  4,  40 ;  Prise.  1,  p.  29  (Keil). 
t  Velius  Longus,  p.  80  (Keil). 


24  LATIN  PRONUNCIATION. 

our  words  with  the  letter  m,  which  has  a  sound  some- 
thing like  the  lowing  of  an  ox,  and  in  which  no  Greek 
word  terminates."  Priscian  remarks,  "M  sounds 
obscurely  at  the  end  of  words." 

13.  N:  usually  had  the  sound  of  the  English  n,  but 
before  c,  q,  g,  or  x  the  sound  of  the  English 
ng  in  "linger". 

This  n  before  a  guttural,  and  technically  known 
as  a  "  guttural  nasal,"  was  called  "  n  adulterinum;"  so, 
according  to  Varro,  the  early  Eoman  writers  in  such 
cases  wrote  it  as  a  g ;  thus,  agceps  for  anceps ;  aggulus 
for  angulus\  and  so  on,  after  the  fashion  of  the  Greeks. 

14.  0 :  ©  practically  had  the  sound  of  ©  in  English 
"  note";  ©  like  ©  in  English  "  not". 

The  6  is  regularly  represented  in  Greek  by  go,  and 
the  6  by  Greek  o.  Marius  Victorinus  (p.  33,  Keil)  says 
that  o  is  produced  with  the  lips  extended  and  the 
tongue  quiescent  in  the  middle  of  the  mouth.  Mar- 
tianus  Capella  (in.  261)  says:  "0  is  produced  by 
breathing  through  the  mouth  made  round."  The 
character  0  is,  in  fact,  believed  to  have  been  origi- 
nally a  pictorial  representation  of  a  rounded  mouth. 

15.  P :  always  had  the  sound  of  English  p. 

The  position  of  the  vocal  organs  in  uttering  p  is  de- 
scribed by  Martianus  Capella  (in.  261).  It  is  always 
represented  in  Greek  by  n. 

16.  ft:  is  always  followed  by  u,  and  had  the  sound 
of  qu  in  English  "  queen". 

(a)  Qu  is  represented  in  Greek  by  kov,  kv,  or  ko. 


S0UND8  OF  THE  LETTERS.  25 

Thus,  Quintus  =  Koivros  ;    Quintilius  =  Kvivri- 
XioS  ;  Quintilianus  =  KovivnXiavos. 

(h)  Q  represents  the  old  Greek  letter  koppa  and  is 
a  sharp  guttural  mute.  Colloquially  qu  may  have 
been  carelessly  sounded  like  k,  or  like  qu  in  modern 
French.  A  candidate  for  office  whose  father  had 
been  a  cook,  once  approached  Cicero  and  asked  a  by- 
stander for  his  vote;  whereupon  Cicero,  who  was  an 
inveterate  punster,  said:  "Ego  quoque  tibi  iure 
favebo,"  pronouncing  quoque  "  koke  "  so  as  to  suggest 
coque ,t\ie  vocative  of  coquus  or  cocus,  a  cook. 

17.  R:  in  general  had  the  sound  of  the  English  r 
with  a  slight  trill ;  i.e.  that  of  the  Italian  rt 

(a)  Because  of  its  trilling  sound  it  is  called  by 
the  satirist  Persius  "  the  dog's  letter"  (lit t era  canina). 

(b)  The  Komans  seem  not  to  have  liked  a  too  fre- 
quent repetition  of  this  letter,  for  it  is  omitted  often 
when  a  following  syllable  contains  it;  as  in pejero  for 
perjero ;  and  grammarians  have  noticed  that  the  geni- 
tive plural  of  the  future  participle  is  of  rare  occur- 
rence. In  the  colloquial  and  provincial  Latin,  r  is 
often  dulled  into  I.  Thus  on  one  of  the  walls  at 
Pompeii  a  part  of  the  first  line  of  the  Aeneid  was 
found  written,  "  ALMA  VILVMQVE  CAJSTO  TLO" 
— a  rendering  which  might  have  been  produced  by  a 
modern  Chinese.  Cf.  the  playful  use  of  Hillus  for 
Hirrus  in  one  of  Cicero's  letters  (ad  Fam,  ii.  10.  1.) 

18.  S  :  had  regularly  the  sound  of  the  English  initial 
s  sharp  as  in  "  sip";  at  the  end  of  words  it  was 
barely  audible. 

(a)  That  s  was  a  sharp  hiss  is  clear  from  the  fact 


26  LATIN  PRONUNCIATION. 

that  it  maintains  its  place  before  the  sharp  consonants, 
as  in  sto,  spes,  squama,  scelus ;  and  does  not  maintain 
its  place  before  flat  consonants,  as  in  cano  (cas?w)9 
index  (iusdex),  dilabor  {dislabor),  diripio  (disripio), 
trado  (tra?isdo),  viden  (videsne) ;  while  it  regularly 
changes  a  preceding  flat  consonant  to  a  sharp,  as 
scripsi  (scribsi),  and  rexi  (regsi). 

(b)  That  it  was  very  lightly  sounded  at  the  end  of 
words  is  clear  from  the  fact  that  until  after  Cicero's 
time  it  was  neglected  in  scanning  when  the  next  word 
began  with  a  consonant ;  that  in  the  early  inscrip- 
tions it  is  frequently  omitted  in  writing,  as  Cornelio 
for  Oornelios  ;  and  that  in  a  great  number  of  words 
it  fell  away  altogether  at  all  periods  of  the  language; 
as  in  ipse  for  ipsus,  pote  for  potts,  vigil  for  vigilis, 
puer  for  puerus  ;  and  compare  such  forms  as  poeta, 
nauta  and  luxuria  with  7toirjrtj^,  vavTr/S,  luxuries: 
and  so  in  modern  Italian. 

[The  neglect  of  final  s  in  scanning  is  extremely  frequent. 
Cf .  such  a  line  as  this  hexameter  from  Ennius,  where  the  s  is 
suppressed  three  times : 

"  Turn  laterali(s)  dolor  certissimu(s)  nuntiu(s)  mortis."] 

19.  T :  had  the  sound  of  English  t,  always  hard. 

(a)  The  English  system  of  pronouncing  Latin  gives 
to  ti  the  sound  of  sh  before  a  vowel,  as  in  the  words 
militia,  oratio.  An  assibilation  was  undoubtedly  a 
characteristic  of  the  Umbrian  and  Oscan  dialects  at  an 
early  period,  and  fastened  itself  upon  the  Latin  after 
the  third  century  A.D.;  for  Isidorus  states  that  tia 
should  be  sounded  zia :   and  in  Greek  transliterations 


SOUNDS  OF  THE  LETTERS  27 

of  the  sixth  century  we  find  such  forms  as  daovaZiovepi 
for  donationem,  and  ccktZio  for  actio.  Pompeius 
says  that  whensoever  a  vowel  follows  ti  or  di,  the  ti  or 
di  becomes  sibilant.  So  again  on  Christian  epitaphs 
we  find  Constantso  for  Constantio,  etc.  But  in  the 
classical  period  of  the  language,  there  is  no  reason  for 
thinking  that  this  assibilation  existed,  for  the  Greek 
transliterations  of  that  period  invariably  denote  Latin 
ti  by  ri,  as  OvaXevria  for  Valentia.  It  is  this  clas- 
sical tradition  which  Servius  retains,  when  he  lays  it 
down  as  a  rule  that  in  all  cases  di  and  ti  are  to  be  pro- 
nounced exactly  as  written.* 

(b)  At  the  end  of  a  word  the  letter  t  seems  to  have 
been  less  strongly  sounded,  for  we  find  such  forms  as 
hau,  apu,  for  haut,  aput.  This  was  a  characteristic 
of  the  Umbrian  and  Volscian  and  affects  the  forms  of 
the  modern  Italian. 

20.  V  vowel   (U) :  u  sounded  like  oo  in  English 
"fool";  %  like  u  in  English  "full". 

(a)  Latin  u  is  regularly  represented  in  Greek  by  ov 
whether  it  be  long  or  short ;  thus,  TLoarovpiio?  = 
Postumiics;  BeXKovrov  =  Belluti. 

(i)  Plautus  represents  the  hoot  of  an  owl  by  tutu 
in  the  Menaechmi,  91;  and  in  the  Carm.  Philorn.  41, 
the  onomatopoetic  verb  tutuho  is  used  of  the  same 
bird.    Cf.  cuculo,  "  to  cry  cuckoo"  {Carm.  Philom.  35). 

(c)  In  early  Latin  u  is  sometimes  written  ou;  thus, 
iousy  ioudex,  douco,  for  ius,  iudex,  duco. 

*  Don.  in  Serv.  p.  445. 


28  LATIN  PRONUNCIATION. 

21.  V  (consonant) :  had  the  sound  of  English  w. 

That  the  character  V  had  both  a  consonantal  and  a 
vowel  sound  is  clear  from  the  unanimous  statements 
of  the  Koman  grammarians,*  who  say  that  whenever 
it  precedes  a  vowel  it  becomes  consonantal.  Also  as 
stated  above  in  Chap.  III.,  the  Emperor  Claudius  in- 
vented a  new  character  to  represent  the  consonantal 
sound  of  v  as  distinguished  from  the  vowel  sound. 

That  the  consonant  sound  of  v  was  practically  that 
of  the  English  10  may  be  inferred  from  the  following 
facts  : 

(a)  The  consonant  sound  and  the  vowel  sound  were 
closely  akin.  This  is  seen  by  the  fact  that  the  consonant 
v  often  melts  into  vowel  v  and  is  so  scanned,  as  in 
such  words  as  silva,\  (scanned  silica),  and  its  absorp- 
tion in  such  words  as  f autor  for  favitor,  lautum  for 
lavatum.  In  his  treatise  on  Divination,  Cicero  says 
that  when  Marcus  Crassus  was  at  Brundisium,  about 
to  cross  over  to  Greece,  a  vendor  of  figs  began  crying 
out  "Cauneas!"  (the  name  of  a  kind  of  figs.)  This, 
Cicero  says,  was  taken  as  an  omen ;  for  it  sounded  like 
"  Cave  ne  eas,"  which  must  therefore  have  been  pro- 
nounced Cau'  n'  eas.  Conversely,  in  poetry,  the  vowel 
v  sometimes  strengthens  into  consonant  v.  Thus  in 
Plautus,  Lucretius,  and  even  in  Vergil  and  Statius, 

*  Cf .  for  instance  Quint.  1,  7,  26  ;  Marius  Victorinus,  p. 
13  (Keil);  Velius  Longus,  pp.  50,  58,  67  (Keil);  Consentius,  p. 
395  (Keil).  The  position  of  the  vocal  organs  in  pronouncing  v 
is  described  by  Terentianus  Maurus,  p.  319  (Keil)  ;  Marius 
Victorinus,  p.  33  (Keil);  and  Martianus  Capella,  in,  261. 

f  Cf .  Horace,  Odes,  i.  23,  4.    Aurarum  el  sililae  metu. 


SOUNDS  OF  THE  LETTERS.  29 

this  happens  in  such  words  as  puella,  suo,  genua,  lama, 
and  tenuis.  Finally,  the  fact  that  both  sounds  of  v 
are  represented  by  the  same  character,  is  evidence  that 
those  sounds  must  have  been  nearly  alike.  But  the 
consonant  sound  that  is  nearest  to  the  vowel  sound  of 
u,  is  the  sound  of  the  English  w. 

(b)  Nigidius  Figulus  *  says  that  when  we  pronounce 
the  word  vos  we  gradually  thrust  out  the  ends  of  our 
lips.  This  remark  describes  perfectly  the  position  of 
the  mouth  in  pronouncing  vos  if  we  assume  that  v 
had  the  sound  of  English  w. 

(c)  The  Greek  writers  in  transliterating  Latin  names 
generally  represent  consonantal  v  by  ov ;  thus, 
OvaAr/pws  for  Valerius ;  OvoXctkoi  for  Volsci ; 
IovovevdXiafov  Iuvenalia;  Ovapos  for  Varus.  Some- 
times, to  be  sure,  v  is  represented  by  /3,  but  this  is 
chiefly  in  Plutarch,  who  is  a  Boeotian  and  confesses  his 
own  ignorance  of  Latin  f ;  or  else  it  is  done  in  proper 
names  in  which  by  using  /3  the  word  becomes  in  ap- 
pearance more  like  a  Greek  one  ;  that  is,  its  form  be- 
comes Hellenized  :  as  for  instance,  Aiftiot,  <Pov\fiios, 
etc.,  for  Livius  and  Fulvius, — the  termination  -ftioS 
being  common  in  Greek. 

*  Quoted  by  Gellius,  x.  44. 

f  The  statistics  on  this  point  will  be  found  in  the  introduction 
to  Koby's  Latin  Grammar,  pp.  xxxvii-xli.  Plutarch,  who 
of tenest  uses  (5  for  v,  expressly  states  in  his  life  of  Demosthenes 
his  own  deficiency  as  a  Latin  scholar.  "  The  relations  of  the 
Boeotian  dialect  to  the  digamma  were  such  as  to  make  it 
possible  that  his  native  pronunciation  may  have  had  some- 
thing to  do  with  this  peculiarity,,  (Roby). 


30  LATIN  PRONUNCIATION. 

22.  X :  had  the  sound  of  x  in  English. 

The  grammarians  say  that  the  character  x  is  a  mono- 
gram representing  cs  or  gs.  Quintilian  remarks  that 
x  is  not  an  indispensable  letter  in  Latin,  implying  that 
cs  and  gs  could  take  its  place.  In  early  Latin,  cs  was 
often  written  for  x. 

23.  Y:  had  the  sound  of  French  u  or  German  u. 
See  III,  supra. 

24.  Z:  had  the  sound    of   English  z    and    modern 
Greek  C 

Z  was  a  letter  used  by  the  Umbrians  and  Oscans, 
but  it  appears  first  in  ordinary  Latin  about  Cicero's 
time  in  the  transliteration  of  Greek  words.  Before 
this,  the  sound  of  Greek  C  had  been  represented  in 
the  Latin  by  s  or  88,  as  sona  for  Zgovt?,  and  ladisso 
for  fiadiZoo-  It  was,  in  classical  times,  always  regard- 
ed by  the  Komans  as  a  Greek  letter. 


V. 

SOUNDS  OF  THE  DIPHTHONGS.-SUMMARY. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  Latin  diphthongs 
{M,  ATJ,  EI,  EU,  (E),  were  originally  true  diphthongs 
(double  sounds),  in  the  full  sense  of  the  word.  That 
is,  in  pronouncing  a  diphthong  the  sound  of  each  of 
its  elements  was  distinctly  heard,  though  pronounced 
in  the  time  of  one  syllable.  (Terent.  Maur.  p.  2392 
P;  Prise,  p.  561  P.)  Knowing,  then,  the  true  sounds 
of  the  individual  letters  which  compose  the  diphthongs, 
it  is  a  simple  matter  to  determine  the  general  pro- 
nunciation of  the  diphthongs  themselves.  At  the  same 
time,  it  is  undoubtedly  true  that  in  the  latter  part  of 
the  classical  period,  a  tendency  to  give  only  one  ele- 
mental sound  to  the  combination  finally  made  its 
way  from  the  pronunciation  of  the  vulgar  into  that 
of  the  cultivated. 

With  this  preliminary  observation  we  may  proceed 
to  the  discussion  of  the  several  diphthongs. 


M  had  originally  the  double  sound  ah-e  pronounced 
quickly ;  later,  the  simple  sound  of  Latin  E,  i.e. 
of  English  a  in  "  fate". 

(a)  Ae  represents  an  early  ai  which  appears  in  the 
oldest  Latin.  Thus,  praifectus,  quaistor,  aulai ;  and 
so  Vergil  to  give  an  antique  coloring  to  his  language 

31 


32  LATIN  PRONUNCIATION. 

has  pictaiy  vestis,  aquai,  aulai,  etc.  (Quint.  I.  7.  18). 
About  the  year  B.C.  175,  the  ai  sound  began  to  give 
way  to  the  ae  sound,  as  can  be  shown  from  the  testi- 
mony of  inscriptions.  The  ai  sound  of  the  diphthong 
(that  of  the  English  affirmative  ay)  may  have  lingered 
in  the  pronunciation  of  purists,  for  at  the  time  when 
the  Emperor  Claudius  instituted  his  reforms,  we  find 
a  temporary  revival  of  the  spelling  ai, 

(b)  As  early  as  the  beginning  of  the  classical  period 
ae  ceased  to  be  sounded  as  a  diphthong  by  the  rustics 
and  by  the  provincials  generally.  This  is  expressly 
stated  by  Varro  in  his  treatise  on  the  Latin  language 
(iv.  9,  and  vii.  96  and  97),  in  which  he  gives  Mesius 
and  hedus  as  rustic  sounds  for  Maesius  and  liaedus. 

(c)  This  rustic  neglect  of  the  first  element  of  the 
diphthong  gradually  prevailed  until  at  last  ae  had 
only  the  force  of  a  long  e  and  is  very  generally  so 
written,  e.g.  seculum  for  saeculum,femine  for feminae, 
and  even  que  for  quae.  But  this  is  as  late  as  the  third 
and  fourth  centuries  a.d.  The  classical  sound  was 
undoubtedly  ae. 

ATJ  had  the  sound  of  ow  in  English  "  now". 

(a)  Au  remained  a  true  diphthong  down  through 
the  classical  period  at  least  in  the  pronunciation  of 
the  educated.  The  Greeks  represent  it  by  av,  as  in 
KAavdioS  for  Claudius. 

(b)  In  vulgar  and  provincial  circles,  auhsL&  sometimes 
the  sound  of  u,  the  first  element  of  the  diphthong  being 
neglected  as  was  the  case  with  ae.  Hence  we  find  occa- 
sionally in  inscriptions  such  forms  v&frudavi  iovfrau- 


SOUNDS  OF  THE  DIPHTHONGS.— SUMMARY.   33 

davi,  cludo  for  claudo,  etc.  But  the  vulgar  generally 
gave  to  au  the  sound  of  o,  as  in  modern  French.  Thus, 
some  branches  of  the  Claudian  family  called  them- 
selves Clodii,  and  we  find  in  provincial  inscriptions 
even  at  an  early  period  Pola  for  Paulla,  Plotus  for 
Plautus,  etc.  Suetonius  in  his  life  of  the  Emperor 
Vespasian  tells  a  story  bearing  on  this,  which  has 
been  often  repeated  and  is  important  as  showing  that 
even  in  the  Silver  Age,  au  was  still  pronounced  as  a 
diphthong.  The  anecdote  runs  as  follows:  "Having 
been  admonished  by  one  Mestrius  Florus,  a  man  of 
consular  rank,  that  he  ought  to  say  'plaustra '  rather 
than  'plostra,'  he  greeted  Florus  the  next  day  as 
6 Flaurus'" — the  point  of  which  is  that  Flaurus 
suggests  the  Greek  (pAavpos,  "good  for  nothing." 

EI  had  the  sound  of  ei  in  English  "  feint ". 

Ei  remained  a  true  diphthong  in  keeping  the  sound 
of  both  its  elements  ;  but  the  combination  ei  is  often 
found  merely  as  an  equivalent  for  L  Corssen  remarks 
that  in  the  root-syllables  of  the  words  deiva,  leiber, 
deicere,  ceivis  ;  in  locative  forms  ;  and  in  the  dative 
and  ablative  plural  of  -a  stems  and  -o  stems,  ei  is  a 
true  diphthong,  but  is  elsewhere  a  transition  vowel 
between  I  and  e.  Cf.  Aussprache,  I.  719,  788;  Kitschl, 
Opuscula,  ii.  626;  Eoby,  §§  267,  268. 

ETJ  had  (nearly)  the  sound  of  eu  in  English  "  feud  ". 

En  remained  a  true  diphthong  with  more  stress 
upon  the  second  element  than  upon  the  first.     This 


34  LATIN  PRONUNCIATION. 

is  seen  by  the  fact  that  (rarely)  it  has  passed  into  u  * 
but  never  into  e.  The  combination  eu  is  not  often 
found  in  Latin  except  in  transliterating  Greek  words, 
and  in  the  exclamations  lieu,  heus,  and  eheu,  and  in 
the  contractions  neu  (neve),  sen  (sive),  and  neuter 
(ne  +  uter).    In  neutiquam  the  antepenult  is  short. 

OE  had  the  sound  of  oi  in  English  "toil"  (nearly), 
or  of  oe. 

Oe  represents  an  original  oi  and  remained  a  diph- 
thong in  those  words  in  which  it  continued  to  be 
written.  When  the  first  element  predominates  over 
the  second,  oe  passes  into  u,  as  in  plum  for  ploera, 
punio  from  the  root  of  poena,  euro,  for  coera.  When 
the  second  element  predominates,  oe  passes  into  ae 
(by  a  confusion)  and  e,  as  in  obscaenus  and  obscenus 
for  obscoenus.  But  in  words  where  oe  is  regularly 
written,  it  is  to  be  pronounced  as  a  true  diphthong. 

XJI  as  a  diphthong  occurs  only  in  a  few  interjec- 
tions, as  liui,  fui,  and  in  huic  and  cui.  In  both  Tiuic 
and  cui  it  represents  an  earlier  oi  (Jioic,  quoi).  In 
other  words  (e.g.  exercitui,  gradui,  etc.)  ui  is  not  a 
diphthong,  but  each  vowel  is  pronounced  separately. 


The  Romans  were  the  first  people  to  call  the  let- 
ters of  the  alphabet  by  their  sounds  rather  than  by 
names,  as  was  done  in  Greek  and  in  the  Semitic 
languages.     Thus  the  Latin  vowels  were  named  by 

*  In  the  Carmen  Saliare  we  find  Leucesie,  a  vocative  of  the 
later  Lucetius  from  the  root  of  lux.  Cf .  Paull.  ex  Fest.  p. 
114  (Muller). 


SOUNDS  OF  THE  DIPHTHONGS.— SUMMARY.   35 

simply  uttering  their  sounds;  the  mute  consonants 
and  h  by  uttering  a  vowel  after  them,  and  the  so- 
called  nasal  and  fricative  consonants  by  uttering  a 
vowel  before  them.  This  vowel  was  e  except  in  the 
case  of  k,  h,  q,  and  x.  Hence,  a  Roman  boy  saying 
over  his  alphabet,  would  have  given  it  thus : 

ah,  b6,  k6,  d6,  e,  ef,  g6,  ha,  i  (ee),  ka,  el,  em,  en,  5, 
p6,  qu  (coo),  er,  es,  t6,  oo,  ix,  (ypsilon,  zeta). 

In  pronouncing  Latin  words,  too  much  care  can  not 
be  taken  in  distinguishing  between  long  vowels  and 
those  that  are  short.  Cicero  says:  Omnium  longi- 
tudinum  et  brevitatum  in  sonis  sicut  acutarum  gra- 
viumque  vocum  indicium,  natura  in  auribus  nostris 
collocavii;  and  student  and  teacher  alike  will  find  that 
if  from  the  outset  a  correct  and  careful  pronunciation 
of  Latin  be  required,  those  bugbears  of  the  learner — 
the  rules  of  prosody — will  almost  teach  themselves, 
because  they  will  have  a  consistency  and  meaning  that 
can  never  be  obvious  to  the  unfortunate  victim  of  the 
"  English  system."  Professor  Richardson,  who  de- 
serves honor  as  being  one  of  the  first  American  schol- 
ars to  advocate  and  adopt  the  true  method  of  pro- 
nouncing Latin,  has  well  summed  up  the  whole  matter 
in  a  single  paragraph : 

"  To  teach  the  student,  from  his  first  entrance  upon 
the  study  of  Latin,  the  English  system  of  pronuncia- 
tion; to  get  him  thoroughly  habituated  to  this  false 
method,  and  then  by  lodging  in  his  brain  some  verbal 
rules  of  quantity  and  prosody,  at  war  often  with 
each  other  and  commonly  with  his  pronunciation, 
to  attempt  to  make  him  appreciate  and  observe  the 


36  LATIN  PRONUNCIATION. 

rhythm  of  Latin  poetry,  is  like  keeping  a  child  in  a 
rude  society  where  all  the  laws  of  a  pure  and  finished 
language  are  habitually  violated,  and  then  expecting 
him,  by  virtue  of  committing  to  memory  the  com- 
mon rules  of  grammar  and  rhetoric,  to  talk  at  once 
with  grammatical  and  rhetorical  correctness  and  ele- 
gance." 

And  this  little  treatise  may  be  closed  by  citing  the 
most  obvious  of  the  reasons  for  adopting  the  Roman 
System. 

(1)  Because  it  is  approximately  the  system  used  by 
the  Eomans  themselves. 

(2)  Because  it  is  more  musical  and  harmonious  in 
sound,  and  makes  the  structure  of  Latin  verse  clear 
even  to  the  beginner. 

(3)  Because  it  is  simpler  than  the  English  system, 
giving  as  it  does  but  one  sound  to  each  alphabetical 
character,  and  thus  always  distinguishing  words  of 
different  orthography  and  meaning  by  their  sounds, 
while  the  English  system  often  confuses  them;  e.g. 
census  and  sensus ;  caedo,  cedo,  and  sedo ;  cir cuius  and 
surcuhis;  cervus  and  servus;  amici  and  amisL 

(4)  Because  it  makes  the  connection  of  Latin  words 
with  their  Greek  cognates  plain  at  once,  and  renders 
easier  the  study  of  Greek,  of  the  modern  Komance  lan- 
guage, and  of  the  science  of  Comparative  Philology.* 

*  See  Richardson's  Roman  Orthoepy,  pp.  83-106.  This  little 
book,  which  is  unfortunately  out  of  print,  contains  some  ex- 
ceedingly good  points  very  cleverly  put,  though  the  view  that 
it  takes  of  certain  phonetic  questions  is  one  that  more  recent 
scholarship  does  not  accept. 


VI. 
A  SHORT  BIBLIOGRAPHY  OP  THE  SUBJECT. 

Allen,  F.    Remnants  of  Early  Latin.    Boston,  1884. 

Blair,  W.  Latin  Pronunciation.  New  York  and  Chicago, 
1874. 

Blass,  F.  Ueber  die  Aussprache  des  Griechischen.  Berlin, 
1882. 

Brambach,  W.  Die  Neugestaltung  der  Lateinischen  Ortho- 
graphic etc.    Leipzig,  1868. 

Corssen,  W.  Ueber  Aussprache,  Vokalismus,  und  Betonung 
der  Lateinischen  Sprache.     Leipzig,  1868-70. 

Edon,  G.     Venture  et  Prononciation  du  Latin.     Paris,  1882. 

Ellis,  A.  J.  Practical  Hints  on  the  Quantitative  Pronuncia- 
tion of  Latin.     London,  1874. 

Haldeman,  S.  S.  Elements  of  Latin  Pronunciation  for  the 
Use  of  Students  in  Language,  etc.    Philadelphia,  1851. 

Keil,  H.     Grammatici  Latini.     7  vols.     Leipzig,  1856-80. 

Kennedy,  B.  H.  The  Public  School  Latin  Grammar.  Lon- 
don, 1874. 

King,  D.  B.  Latin  Pronunciation.  New  York  and  Boston, 
1880. 

King,  J.,  and  Cookson,  C.  Principles  of  Sound  and  Inflexion 
in  Greek  and  Latin.     London,  1888. 

Munro,  H.  A.  J.  Remarks  on  the  Pronunciation  of  Latin. 
Cambridge,  1871. 

Munro,  H.  A.  J.,  and  Palmer,  E.  A  Syllabus  of  Latin  Pro- 
nunciation.    Oxford  and  Cambridge,  1872. 

Richardson,  J.  F.  Roman  Orthoepy  :  a  Plea  for  the  Restora- 
tion of  the  True  System  of  Latin  Pronunciation.  New 
York,  1859. 

37 


38  LATIN  PRONUNCIATION. 

Ritschl,   F.    Zur    Geschichte  des  Lateinischen  Alphabets: 

in  the  Rheinisches  Museum,  1869. 
Roby,  H.  J.     A  Grammar  of  the  Latin  Language  from  Plau- 

tus  to  Suetonius.     London,  1881. 
Schtjchardt,  H.   Der  Vokalismus  des  Vulgarlateins.  Leipzig, 

1866-68. 
Seelmann,  E.   Die  Aussprache  des  Latein  nach  physiologisch- 

historischen  Grundsatzen.     Heilbronn,  1885. 
Sievers,  E.     Grundziige  der  Phonetik.     Leipzig,  1885. 
Sweet,  H.    A  Handbook  of  Phonetics.     Oxford,  1877. 
Tafel,  L.,  and  Tafel,  R.    Latin  Pronunciation  and  the  Latin 

Alphabet.    New  York  and  Philadelphia,  1860. 
Taylor,  Isaac.    The  Alphabet.    London,  1683. 
Weil,  H. ,  and  Benloew,  L.    Theorie  Generate  de  l'Accen- 

tuation  Latine.     Paris,  1855. 
Wordsworth,  J.    Fragments  and  Specimens  of  Early  Latin. 

Oxford,  1874. 

[See  also  articles  by  Prof.  Max  Muller  and  Mr.  Munro  in 
the  Academy,  Feb.  15, 1871;  Dec.  15, 1871;  and  Jan.  11, 1872.] 


OF    THE  r 

VER8ITY 

c^liforH^ 


BROOKS1  (J.)  ATTIC  GREEK. 

An  Introduction  to  Attic  Greek.  By  Jabez  Brooks,  Pro- 
fessor in  the  University  of  Minnesota.  Second  Edition,  Re- 
vised, x  +  190  pp.  i2mo.  Teachers'  price,  $1.10;  by  mail, 
$1.16. 

The  fundamental  idea  of  this  book — an  idea  that  much  expe- 
rience has  shown  to  be  practicable — is  to  begin  the  study 
of  Greek  with  a  connected  text,  and  to  so  work  this  text  over 
as  to  derive  from  it  all  the  grammar  involved,  and  then  to 
attach  to  the  framework  thus  formed  whatever  further  gram- 
matical apparatus  is  necessary.  The  first  chapter  of  the  Anab- 
asis has  been  found  to  contain  a  stock  of  forms  sufficiently 
varied  to  illustrate  all  the  essentials  of  the  accidence,  and  is 
accordingly  taken  as  a  basis  for  work.  Conversation  and  dic- 
tation exercises,  appealing  to  the  learner's  powers  of  imitation, 
form  an  integral  part  of  the  plan,  and,  it  has  been  found,  give 
him  a  natural  and  unconscious  grip  of  the  language  exceeding 
that  obtained  by  any  other  exercise. 


George  A.  Williams,  Principal  of 
Vermont  Academy,  Saxon 's  River  : 
— It  gives  a  method  that  will  work 
and  produce  results.  It  is  quite 
similar  to  a  method  I  have  used 
with  my  own  classes  for  three 
years,  with  better  results  than  I 
have  secured  by  any  other  method. 
The  constant  and  systematic  drill 
in  forms,  vocabulary,  and  the 
syntax  of  the  first  chapter  of  the 
Anabasis  give  a  better  basis  for 
accurate  knowledge  of  Greek  than 
an  equal  amount  of  time  spent 
with  the  detached  sentences  and 
unsystematic  system  of  the  old 
M  first  books." 

J.  H.  Drake,  Professor  in  the 
University    of    Michigan  :  —  The 


plan  of  memorizing,  as  soon  as 
the  study  is  commenced,  a  portion 
of  the  text  is  an  excellent  one.  It 
gives  to  the  pupil  at  the  very  first  a 
small  stock  of  words  that  cannot 
but  be  of  the  greatest  value  to 
him.  Some  students  go  through 
college  without  ever  becoming 
freed  from  bondage  to  their  dic- 
tionaries, because  there  is  fre- 
quently no  systematic  effort  to  ac- 
quire and  retain  words.  Prof. 
Brooks'  method  will  correct  in 
great  measure  this  error.  The 
conversational  exercises  will  give 
that  which  is  so  difficult  to  arouse 
in  beginning  a  language — a  lively 
interest  in  the  subject,  and,  too, 
will  aid  greatly  in  increasing  the 
vocabulary  of  the  learner. 


GILDERSLEEVE'S  (B.  L.)  GREEK  LITERATURE. 

A  Short  History  of  Greek  Literature.  By  Basil  L.  Gil- 
dersleeve,  Ph.D.,  Professor  in  the  Johns  Hopkins  Univer- 
sity.    {In  preparation.) 

Now  that  the  study  of  Greek  is  no  longer  necessarily  included 
in  what  is  still  called  a  liberal  education,  the  publishers  are  happy 
in  being  able  to  announce  some  substitute  for  it  from  one  of 
the  very  first  of  living  authorities.  The  work  will  be  equally 
valuable  as  a  companion  for  those  studying  the  subject  at  first 
hand. 

In  this  volume  the  great  monuments  of  Greek  literature  are 
brought  into  clear  relief,  little  space  being  given  to  elaborate  dis- 
quisitions as  to  origin  and  development  and  to  detailed 
accounts  of  unfamiliar  authors.  The  classic  period  will  take  up 
the  bulk  of  the  volume,  which  is  not  to  exceed  350  pp.  The 
post-classic  period  will  be  treated  in  outline  with  the  exception 
of  a  few  typical  authors,  whose  influence  has  made  itself  felt  in 
modern  literature. 

GOODELL'S  (T.  D.)  GREEK  TEXT-BOOKS. 

The  Greek  in  English.  First  Lessons  in  Greek,  with  spe- 
cial reference  to  the  etymology  of  English  words  of  Greek 
origin.  By  Thomas  D.  Goodell,  Ph.D.,  Assistant  Profes- 
sor in  Yale  College.  Second  Edition,  Revised  and  Enlarged. 
x+  138  pp.  i6mo.  Teachers'  price,  60  cents ;  by  mail,  64 
cents. 

The  first  idea  of  Dr.  Goodell's  book  arose  from  hearing  a 
woman  of  unusual  intelligence  and  considerable  reading  talking 
about  altruists,  when  she  meant  agnostics.  Many  a  man  who 
thinks  he  has  retained  nothing  whatever  from  his  Greek,  except 
a  safety  from  such  blunders,— a  lively  sense  of  the  exact  mean- 
ing of  such  words  as  agnostic,  metaphysics,  synthetic,  anarchy, 
Russophobe, — nevertheless  regards  his  "little  Greek"  as  an  in- 
tellectual acquisition  worth  all  it  costs.  But,  after  all,  how 
great  the  cost  of  this  one  acquisition  has  been  !  Surely  this  one 
result  of  the  study  of  Greek  can  be  reached  without  devoting 
to  it  years  of  time.  The  Greek  vocabulary  surviving  in  Eng- 
lish can  be  so  presented  in  a  sort  of  Greek  primer,  with  its 
relations  to  English  so  pointed  out,  that  even  young  pupils  will 
find  the  study  far  from  dull ;  and  thus  they  will  be,  perhaps, 
more  apt  than  the  much-abused  "  average  college  graduate  " 
to  remember  just  that  part  of  Greek  which  they  will  have  oc- 
casion to  use.  Accordingly  this  book  attempts  to  teach  that 
limited  portion  of  Greek  which  even  those  who  wish  to  banish 
the  study  from  our  schools  would  admit  can  least  easily  be 
spared,  and  which  is  most  essential  to  a  ready  command  of  the 


GOODELL'S  (T.  D.)  GREEK  TEXT-BOOKS.—  (Continued.) 


English  tongue.  This  portion 
of  time  or  labor. 

F.  S.  Morrison,  Instructor  in  the 
Hartford  (Ct.)  High  School :—\ 
am  greatly  pleased  with  the  suc- 
cess I  have  had  with  the  book 
[first  edition]  in  my  classes,  and 
shall  continue  to  use  it,  expecting 
now  even  better  results. 

While  the  book  seems  primarily 
designed  for  those  who  have  no 
intention  of  taking  a  full  Greek 
course,  ...  I  really  believe  the 
inspiration  gained  from  this  book 
last  spring  with  my  present  lowest 
class  has  given  them  invaluable 
aid  in  mastering  the  dry  details 
necessary  to  a  careful  study  of 
Greek  in  preparation  for  the  Uni- 
versity. They  are  continually 
bringing  up,  in  class,  questions 
concerning  and  references  to  the 
"  little  book,"  as  they  call  it. 

Henry  M.  Baird.  Professor  in  the 
University  of  the  City  of  New 
York  : — I  judge  that  he  has  shown 
conclusively  that  it  is  practicable 
for  an  American  youth  of  ordinary 
capacity  to  acquire,  within  a  few 
weeks'  time,  a  sufficient  acquaint- 
ance with  the  Greek  language  to 
enable  him  to  understand  and  to 
enjoy  tracing  the  etymology  of  a 
large  class  of  words  at  first  sight 
difficult  and  repulsive. 

0.  M.  Fernald,  Professor  in 
Williams  College,  Mass.  : — It 
seems  to  have  been  thoughtfully 
.  planned,  and  the  plan  has  been 
carried  out  with  both  zeal  and 
knowledge.  The  book  is  calcu- 
lated to  do  good  service,  not 
only  in  giving  a  taste  of  Greek 
to  those  who  do  not  propose  to 
make  it  a  serious  study,  but  in 
stimulating  the  interest  of  others 
who  are  entering  upon  the  pro- 
longed study  of  the  language,  but 
have  not  gone  far  enough  to  see 


it  tries  to  teach  without  waste 

the  value  of  what  they  are  doing, 
and  are  perhaps  discouraged  by 
the  lack  of  recreation  in  their  daily 
tasks. 

W.  S.  Tyler,  Professor  in  Am- 
herst College,  Mass.  : — So  far  as  it 
goes,  it  is  a  clear,  concise,  and  ac- 
curate statement  of  the  rudiments 
of  Greek  Grammar,  well  suited  to 
be  an  Introduction,  yet  not  suffi- 
ciently full  to  supersede  books  in- 
tended for  that  purpose,  showing 
clearly  and  well  illustrating  the 
necessity  of  some  knowledge  of 
Greek  to  a  proper  use  and  full  un- 
derstanding of  English  words  de- 
rived from  the  Greek,  and  at  the 
same  time  making  the  study  so 
attractive  that  intelligent  and 
aspiring  students,  so  far  from  be- 
ing content  with  the  beginning, 
will  be  very  likely  to  covet  the 
further  study  and  mastery  of  the 
language. 

Minton  Warren,  Professor  in 
the  Johns  Hopkins  University, 
Md.  : — For  those  desiring  a  mini- 
mum of  Greek  in  a  practical  edu- 
cation, I  think  the  plan  is  an  ex- 
cellent one ;  and  considerable  in- 
formation is  contained  within  the 
covers  of  the  little  book  which,  I 
fear,  even  those  who  have  studied 
Greek  for  years  have  not  fully 
mastered. 

S.  R.  Winans,  Professor  in 
Princeton  University ,  N.J.  : — His 
book  is  brief,  accurate,  and  well 
arranged, — simple  and  intelligi- 
ble,— and  avoids  misleading  the 
tyro  by  mixing  up  words  cognate 
and  words  borrowed,  but  carefully 
discriminates  words  made  or  bor- 
rowed directly  from  Greek  and 
those  which  come  directly  through 
Latin  and  French. 


GOODELL'S  (T.  D.)  GREEK  TEXT-BOOKS.— {Continued.) 

A  Second  Greek  Book.  By  Thomas  D.  Goodell,  Ph.D., 
Assistant  Professor  in  Yale  College.  {In  preparation.) 
This  volume,  together  with  the  author's  "  The  Greek  in  Eng- 
lish," forms  a  continuous  course  preparatory  to  the  Anabasis. 
In  it  the  essentials  of  grammar  not  presented  in  "  The  Greek 
in  English  "  are  taken  up  systematically  in  connection  with 
Greek  and  English  exercises.  As  far  as  practicable,  the  exer- 
cises consist  of  connected  speech,  thus  introducing  at  the 
earliest  moment  the  particles  and  the  most  common  differences 
between  the  idioms  of  the  two  languages. 

The  book  has  been  prepared  in  consequence  of  the  experi- 
ence of  more  than  one  teacher,  which  has  been  expressed  in 
some  such  terms  as  those  of  Mr.  Morrison's  letter  printed 
above,  and  is  meant  for  the  use  of  pupils  who,  not  having  orig- 
inally intended  to  go  further  than  "  The  Greek  in  English,"  are, 
as  some  may  be  expected  to  be,  led  by  it  to  desire  more  knowl- 
edge of  the  language. 

Greek  Lessons.  Arranged  with  special  reference  to  the 
Greek  element  in  English,  and  serving  as  an  introduction  to 
Xenophon's  Anabasis.  By  Thomas  D.  Goodell,  Ph.D., 
Assistant  Professor  in  Yale  College.  {In  preparation.) 
This  book  consists  of  "The  Greek  in  English "  and  "The 
Second  Greek  Book  "  bound  together  for  the  use  of  those  who 
begin  with  the  expectation  of  preparing  to  read  Attic  prose. 

PECK'S  (H.  T.)  LATIN  TEXT-BOOKS. 

Gai  Suetoni  Tranquilli  De  Vita  Caesarum  Libri  Duo.   Edited, 

with  an  Introduction  and  Commentary,  by  Harry  Thurston 

Peck,  M.A.,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  Latin  in  Columbia  College. 

xxxv +  215  pp.    i2mo.    Teachers' price,  $1.20;  by  mail,  $1.30. 

Suetonius  is  the  Roman  Plutarch.  Like  the  famous  Greek 
biographer,  he  treats  his  subject  chiefly  on  the  personal  side; 
so  that  while  he  passes  over  the  great  events  of  general  history 
with  a  light  touch,  he  abounds  in  minute  and  extremely  inter- 
esting information  regarding  the  personal  characteristics  of  the 
famous  men  whom  he  describes.  Unlike  Plutarch,  however, 
he  is  exceedingly  well-informed,  accurate,  and  careful.  His 
position  as  secretary  to  the  Emperor  Hadrian  gave  him  access 
to  sources  of  information  such  as  Plutarch  never  possessed ; 
and  he  had  unlimited  opportunities  to  gather  the  anecdotes, 
and  to  verify  the  traditions  that  have  made  his  Lives  a  rich 
mine  of  knowledge  for  all  succeeding  writers. 

In  his  pages  we  see  the  great  personages  of  Roman  history, 
not  as  lay  figures,  but  as  living,  breathing  men ;  we  know  all 
their  whims  and  weaknesses ;  and  the  knowledge  gives  a  much 


PECK'S  (H.  T.)  LATIN  TEXT-BOOKS.—  {Continued.) 

keener  zest  to  the  perusal  of  the  other  literature  of  the  time. 
There  could  be  no  better  course  of  reading  parallel  to  the  study 
of  Cicero,  Vergil,  Horace,  Ovid,  and  Tacitus  than  the  lives  of 
Julius  and  Augustus  Caesar ;  and  the  Latin  is  sufficiently  easy 
to  admit  of  the  use  of  the  book  by  classes  engaged  in  reading 
at  sight.  The  Commentary  is  unusually  full,  and  the  Introduc- 
tion will  be  found  helpful  in  giving  an  insight  into  the  literary 
purpose  of  the  author,  and  in  explaining  and  summarizing  the 
peculiarities  of  his  style. 


Win.  Gardner  Hale,  Professor  in 
Cornell  University,  N.  Y.  :— It  was 
a  pleasure  to  me  to  find  your 
Suetonius  awaiting  me.  ...  I 
may  have  an  opportunity  to  read 
it  in  the  best  way  this  year,  by 
employing  it  with  a  class. 

Tracy  Peck,  Professor  in  Yale 
College,  Conn.  : — I  have  had  no 
time  as  yet  to  examine  the  edito- 
rial work,  but  I  can  express  my 
gratification  that  so  interesting  and 
instructive  a  Latin  writer  is  now 
at  last  brought  within  the  easy 
reach  of  our  students. 

Wm.  A.  Packard,  Professor  in 
Princeton  University ,  N.  J.  .* — I 
find  it  carefully  edited,  with  excel- 
lent Introduction  and  Commen- 
tary, and  trust  it  will  help  to  ex- 
tend the  amount  of  Latin  reading 
and  study  in  our  colleges. 

E.  M.  Pease,  Professor  in  Bow- 
doin  College,  Me.  : — I  have  exam- 
ined it  with  much  pleasure.  It  is 
an  excellent  edition  of  a  very 
attractive  author,  and  you  are 
doing  a  real  service  to  Latin  teach- 
ers in  bringing  it  out. 

E.  P.  Crowell,  Professor  in  Am- 
herst College,  Mass.  ; — It  seems  to 
me  after  such  examination  as  I 
have  been  able  to  give  the  book 
that  it  will  be  a  valuable  addition 
to  the  series  of  classic  authors 
accessible  to  college  students  in 
American  editions,  with  such  an- 
notations as  are  profitable  for 
study. 


Chas.  E.  Bennett,  Professor  in 
the  University  of  Wisconsin  : — I 
am  glad  to  see  so  desirable  a 
classic  added  to  the  list  of  Latin 
college  authors,  and  shall  hope 
soon  to  use  the  book  here.  Mr. 
Peck's  grammatical  Introduction 
I  regard  as  of  great  value,  while 
the  whole  Commentary  gives  evi- 
dence of  the  genuine  love  he  has 
borne  for  his  work. 

Frank  Smalley,  Professor  in 
Syracuse  University,  N.  Y.  : — I 
am  pleased  to  see  an  edition  of 
this  author,  whose  works  mark 
the  hither  limit  of  our  Latin 
Grammars. 

Sidney  Or.  Ashmore,  Professor  in 
Union  College,  N.  Y.  : — I  have 
examined  it  with  much  interest 
and  care.  I  find  it  to  be  an  ad- 
mirable book.  The  Introduction 
is  especially  valuable  for  its  clear 
and  philosophic  presentation  of 
the  position  of  Suetonius  in  litera- 
ture, and  is  well  calculated  to 
awaken  an  interest  in  the  author 
of  the  "  Lives  of  the  Caesars,"  and 
the  period  of  which  he  treats. 
The  notes  exhibit  evidence  of  ex- 
tensive reading,  accurate  scholar- 
ship, and  a  conscientious  study  of 
the  author,  and  if  sometimes  more 
elaborate  than  would  seem  neces- 
sary to  meet  the  needs  of  the 
average  university  student,  are 
nevertheless  replete  with  useful 
information  and  references  impor- 
tant to  the  advanced  scholar. 


PECK'S  (H.  T.)  LATIN  TEXT-BOOKS.— (Continued.) 

A  History  of  the  Latin  Language.  By  Harry  Thurston 
Peck,  M.A.,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  the  Latin  Language  and 
Literature  in  Columbia  College.  With  Word  Lists,  Glossa- 
ries, and  a  Complete  Index.  {Ready  in  1891.) 
The  book  gives  a  general  history  of  the  Latin  language,  de- 
fines its  place  in  the  Indo-European  family,  traces  its  develop- 
ment, indicates  the  sources  of  its  enrichment,  and  also  presents 
an  interesting  sketch  of  modern  Latin  and  modern  Latinists. 
The  author  aims  to  present  in  concise  and  simple  form  a 
mass  of  facts  that  can  elsewhere  be  found  only  scattered  through 
a  great  number  of  works  in  many  languages,  and  that  are  often 
inaccessible  to  the  general  student,  and,  when  found,  encum- 
bered with  superfluous  matter.  Everywhere  the  author  has 
gone  to  original  sources,  and  has  formed  his  conclusions  in- 
dependency.  A  great  mass  of  material  has  thus  been  drawn 
upon, — the  remains  of  the  early  Italian  dialects — the  Oscan  and 
Umbrian ;  the  earliest  Inscriptions ;  the  statements  of  the 
Roman  writers  themselves — Varro,  Cicero,  Quintilian,  Aulus 
Gellius,  Macrobius,  Priscian,  Servius,  and  many  others ;  while 
the  theories  of  the  advanced  school  of  modern  philology  have 
not  been  overlooked.  Especial  attention  is  called  to  the  treat- 
ment of  the  other  Italic  dialects  in  their  relation  to  early  Latin  ; 
to  the  chapter, on  the  Etruscans;  to  the  interesting  statistics 
regarding  the  enrichment  of  the  vocabulary  of  the  language  by 
authors  like  Ennius,  Plautus,  and  Cicero  ;  and  to  the  Glossaries 
which  embody  the  results  of  much  careful  investigation.  A 
valuable  feature  will  be  the  very  full  bibliographical  references 
in  every  part  of  the  work,  so  that  the  book  will  be  of  use  not 
only  to  the  general  reader  and  the  university  student,  but 
helpful  also  to  all  those  who  desire  to  be  directed  to  an  ex- 
haustive course  of  reading.  In  fact,  it  is  believed  that  the  book 
will  be  equally  useful  to  the  student  and  the  teacher,  and 
that  it  will  render  the  study  of  Latin  more  interesting  because 
more  suggestive  and  more  fruitful. 

Latin  Pronunciation  :  A  Short  Exposition  of  the  Roman 
Method.  By  Harry  Thurston  Peck,  M.A.,  Ph.D.,  Pro- 
fessor in  Columbia  College.     38  pp.     i2mo.     (In  press.) 

The  Roman  method  of  pronouncing  Latin  has  finally  received 
the  approval  of  all  the  leading  Latinists  of  Europe  and  America. 
Our  older  universities  have  officially  adopted  it.  The  most 
recent  grammars  of  the  language  recognize  no  other  system. 
Many  teachers  of  Latin,  however,  and  many  more  students  of 
Latin,  have  accepted  it  partly  upon  the  authority  of  others. 
The  former  have  perhaps  been  unable  to  command  the  time  to 


PECK'S  (H.  T.)  LATIN  TEXT-BOOKS.—  {Continued.) 

make  a  personal  investigation  of  this  very  interesting  question  ; 
and  the  latter  have  been  deterred  by  the  vast  amount  of  mate- 
rial accumulated  by  Schneider,  Corssen,  and  their  co-workers. 
It  is  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  wish  to  inform  themselves 
more  fully  upon  this  subject,  with  no  unnecessary  expenditure 
of  time,  that  the  present  manual  has  been  prepared.  It  con- 
tains, in  brief,  a  sketch  of  the  history  of  the  Roman  Alphabet ; 
presents  a  summary  of  the  sources  of  our  information  regarding 
the  ancient  pronunciation  of  Latin ;  gives  the  accepted  sound 
of  each  letter;  and  appends  a  clear  statement  of  the  reasons  why 
scholars  have  arrived  at  each  particular  conclusion.  Especial 
attention  is  given  to  the  disputed  sounds  of  the  letters  C,  G,  T, 
and  V ;  and  the  doctrine  of  philologists  is  made  very  clear, 
without  any  cumbrous  technicalities.  A  short  explanation  of 
Latin  Accent  follows  ;  and  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  may 
desire  to  pursue  a  fuller  course  of  reading,  a  very  complete 
bibliography  of  the  whole  subject  is  added.  It  is  believed  that 
both  by  teachers  and  students  alike  a  clear,  concise,  and  sim- 
ple treatise  like  the  present  will  be  received  with  favor,  as  satis- 
fying a  need  that  has  long  existed. 
PREPARATORY  LATIN  AND  GREEK  TEXTS. 

Preparatory  Latin  and  Greek  Texts  required  for  Admis- 
sion to  American  Colleges.  Caesar,  Cicero,  Ovid,  Virgil, 
Xenophon,  Homer.  767  pp.  i6mo.  Teachers' price,  $1.20; 
by  mail,  $1.32.  Latin  part  separate — teachers'  price,  80  cents ; 
by  mail,  88  cents.  Greek  part  separate — teachers'  price,  60 
cents ;  by  mail,  66  cents. 

The  Latin  part  contains  five  books  of  Caesar,  seven  of 
Cicero's  Orations,  177  pages  of  selections  from  Ovid's  Meta- 
morphoses, and  six  books  of  the  ^Eneid  and  the  Bucolics. 
The  Greek  part  contains  three  books  of  the  Anabasis  and  the 
same  number  of  the  Iliad.  The  book  rests  its  claim  to  useful- 
ness on  its  compact,  handy  form  and  clean,  open  page, 

SCRIVENER'S  (F.  H.  A.)  GREEK  TESTAMENT. 

H  Katvrj  8ta0T]KT].     Novum  Testamentum.     Textus  Stepha- 

nici   a.d.    1550,   cum  Variis   Lectionibus   Editionum    Bezae, 

Elzeviri,    Lachmanni,   Tischendorfii,   Tregellesii,   Westcott- 

Hortii,  Versionis  Anglicanae  emendatorum,  Curante,  F.  H.  A. 

Scrivener,  A.M.,*  D.C.L.,  LL.D.     Accedunt    Parallela    S. 

Scripturae    Loca.     598   pp.     i6mo.     Teachers'  price,    $2.00; 

by  mail,  $2.12. 

The  text  is  that  of  the  authorized  version  (Stephens,  1550), 
with  the  various  readings  approved  by  Westcott  and  Hort,  and 
those  finally  adopted  by  the  revisers. 


WILLIAMS'S  (C.  T.)   EXTRACTS    FROM    GREEK    AU- 
THORS. 

Extracts  from  Various  Greek  Authors.  Designed  as  an 
accompaniment  to  Xenophon's  Anabasis  and  for  the  culti- 
vation of  Sight  Reading.  By  Charles  Tudor  Williams, 
M.A.,  Instructor  in  the  Cleveland  (O.)  High  School.  i2mo. 
{In  press.) 

This  collection  was  originally  prepared  for  supplementary  use 
at  times  when,  after  the  regular  lesson,  a  few  moments  might  be 
devoted  to  the  offhand  reading  of  a  short  passage  bearing  upon 
the  subject  of  the  lesson,  providing  such  passages  were  accessi- 
ble in  some  handy  form.  It  is  hoped  that  it  may  be  generally 
available  for  this  and  other  purposes.  The  subjects  of  the 
passages  selected  are  closely  allied  to  those  of  the  Anabasis, 
and  often  explanatory  of  them. 

In  preparing  the  notes  and  word-lists  placed  at  the  foot 
of  each  page,  the  difficulty  has  been  to  steer  between  the 
extremes  of  too  copious  and  too  meagre  help.  The  me- 
dium aimed  at  has  been  not  to  give  the  meaning  of  words, 
much  less  roots  of  compound  words,  which  the  student  would 
naturally  have  met  in  his  reading  of  Xenophon ;  but  to  define 
all  unusual  words,  and  to  explain  all  geographical,  historical, 
or  technical  allusions.  Indices  for  assistance  in  the  prompt 
selection  of  a  subject  suited  to  each  day's  lesson,  and  a  list  of 
verbs  specially  prepared  for  the  quick  and  easy  determination 
of  all  unusual  and  irregular  forms,  are  provided. 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 

AN  INITIAL  FINE  OF  25  CENTS 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED   FOR   FAILURE  TO  RETURN 
THIS   BOOK   ON   THE  DATE  DUE.   THE   PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  50  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY    AND    TO     $1.00    ON     THE    SEVENTH     DAY 
OVERDUE. 
-^-AiiJ    -04 — 4QQ/ .— 

IIVU1    \MJL    \+r+J~* 

SEP  2  7  2001 

LD  21-100m-7,'33 

U.C.  BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 

llll  II II!  II I  llll  II  Ell  III 

C02284bl?fl 

